Farmer Focus: Dairy upgrade begins despite milk price slump

The dusting of snow we had at the start of the year didn’t affect us much – we have the sea on three sides within just a couple of miles, so we rarely get a lot and it never hangs around long.

The sheep are off the silage ground and most of it has now had a covering of slurry; it’s nice to be spreading it when it does some good.

See also: How new slurry store sets up dairy to optimise spreading

About the author

Tom Stable

Tom Stable and family, Ulverston, Cumbria, milk 350 Holsteins three times a day, producing milk for Arla and ice cream for their Cumbrian Cow brand. The 300ha operation, of which two thirds is rented, grows grass, maize and winter wheat and cows average 11,800 litres.

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I always find the spring work comes round fast at this time of year, so we are trying to get ahead of the routine work ready for it.

The turmoil in the dairy markets continues, which means our decision making is more difficult.

After what feels like a couple of years’ work getting plans drawn, planning permission in place, finance agreed, we have begun to build our new milking facilities.

The uncertainty around milk price is sucking the enthusiasm out of us, but in reality, volatility is part of our industry.

The parlour will go into an extension of our main cubicle shed, which is effectively a green field.

This means the building process should have minimal effect on our day-to-day operations and will allow us to take a break from it if things deteriorate much more.

We have ordered a 60-point GEA rotary, and are going to build new handling facilities and collecting yard, along with a slurry store, which will form the first part.

The store will include a slatted section we can drive under with the loadall to remove the sand – this will replace the V-channel, which we have had to abandon.

The channel itself works, but my design when we installed it means the last 17m is too shallow and simply doesn’t work.

I am apprehensive of making similar mistakes, but we’ve been working on our plans since Covid and hopefully have learned from our errors.

When other people tell me of plans and ambitions, I always say “fortune favours the bold”.

I hope that’s how it works here, too. I will keep updating you as we go.

It won’t be a fast process, but I would like to be in before I’m 40 (I’ll leave you to guess how long that gives me).